[NLRS] Mt. Tom (Sibley StPk) 10GHz

[Donn Baker]

Well, I guess I'd better get my report in here too.

Arrived at Mt. Tom at 12 noon.  Tried to contact Jon on the Wilmar
repeater, and when that didn't work, tried 146.46.  Nothing.  Nuts, came
that far, wasn't going to go without trying, so I dragged stuff up to the
observation platform.  18 - 20' high on the summit of Mt. Tom.  Paved path
from the parking lot (~500 ft).  Two sets of stairs to the top.  I've got
some pix if anyone is interested.  They're kind of large, in the ~700k
range.  Let me konw if you want to see'em.

Was set up and ready to go about 1225.  Set the frequency where we had been
working (where _I_ think 10368.1 is, maybe +/- 2kHz). Looked on the bearing
I expected to hear the Monticello group on... nada.  Moved to listen for
Gary and Lenny in MPLS.  BINGO.  Dits and Dahs, about 2 kHz higher than I
was, but there.  Fair signals.  Peaked antenna, and the bearing was right.
The beacon stopped, and I jumped on SSB.  The beacon was back.  Stopped
again, and this time Lenny, K0SHF, came right back to me.  Until we both
our antennas in the right place copy was a little difficult (one or both of
us were drifting... I had to follow him with RIT).  Things settled down and
we completed with 4X4 SSB signals at my end at 1730Z.  EN25lh to EN35ja
shows to be 91.8 mi (mapping software says 91.3 mi).  Gary, WB0LJC, and I
completed in the next minute or two. Garys signals were noticably weaker
(~600 mW vs. 2W) but his signal was more stable.  No problem.

Gary and Lenny got ahold of Jon, K0FQA, and Jim, K0KFC, at Monticello.  I
swung the dish to their heading and called.  BAM! there was Jim, K0KFC.
62.2 mi grid to grid (61.5 by software).  Worked both Jim and Jon with
S3-S5 signals on a stingy meter.

Bruce, W9FZ, was still as Vasa, MN.  I was told he would be transmitting
for five minutes, starting at 1755Z.  I looked on the bearing (118*), but
heard nothing.  I sent from 1800 to 1805.  WIthin a few seconds of Bruce's
next sequence he was there...  on SSB.  I called him, and we completed by
1810Z.  Weak, and some was kind of hard to understand, but with a few
repetitions I got everything.  Only thing I had trouble hearing were the
last two characters of the grid... Papa Mike.  "Papa" doesn't come through
to my ears very well.  (I think Bruce's running 70mW... I could be wrong.)

Went back to Jon and Jim, and Jim suggested calling Mike, KM0T.  No answer,
so I packed stuff down off the tower, and headed home.  (Found out later
that about the time I was leaving the parking lot, Jon and Mike were
completing their Q.  Oh, well.)  Mike, I will go back there for you...
should be a chip shot.  If anything, there's a better horizon in your
direction than there is to Vasa.  (Its 163 mi. 20/200 degrees).

All in all, a very good day.  Other than the drive, it has possibilities as
a 10GHz contest site.  Nice long paths for DX points.

Jim, K0KFC, made the best comment of the day.  Something to the effect that
he now belives 10GHz makes a good liasion frequency for 2m!

Thanks, everybody.  I had fun!

73 Donn
WA2VOI/0